A NASA handout image of the continental United States at night shows a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012 and released December 5, 2012.

In this image from Oct. 13, 2012 provided by NASA, the Nile River valley and delta is seen at night from a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite. The Nile River Valley and Delta comprise less than five per cent of Egypt’s land area, but provide a home to roughly 97 per cent of the country’s population. Nothing makes the location of human population clearer than the lights illuminating the valley and delta at night. The city lights resemble a giant calla lily, just one with a kink in its stem near the city of Luxor. Some of the brightest lights occur around Cairo, but lights are abundant along the length of the river. Bright city lights also occur along the Suez Canal and around Tel Aviv. Away from the lights, however, land and water appear uniformly black. This image was acquired near the time of the new Moon, and little moonlight was available to brighten land and water surfaces.

Night time view of Hurricane Isaac in this August 29, 2012 satellite image courtesy of NASA.

Night time view of Auroras over Canada in this October 8, 2012 satellite image courtesy of NASA.

Night time view of Hurricane Sandy off the eastern coast of the United States in this October 28, 2012 satellite image courtesy of NASA.

Night time view of a blackout in New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy in this November 1, 2012 satellite image courtesy of NASA.

Lights in North, Central and South America are seen in this April 18, 2012 satellite image courtesy of NASA.

Lights across the earth are pictured in this NASA handout satellite image obtained by Reuters December 5, 2012. This new image of the Earth at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite over nine days in April 2012 and thirteen days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands.

A NASA handout released December 5, 2012 of a composite image of Asia and Australia at night, assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.

A NASA Earth Observatory image released December 5, 2012 shows Britain, Ireland and part of Western Europe as it appeared on the night of March 27, 2012.